The Montreal-based trio Misc, whose members are 30 years old plus or minus a few years, don’t look like your father’s jazz bands, or, for that matter, play like them.

The group does feature the classic jazz instrumentation of piano, acoustic bass and drums, played respectively by Jérôme Beaulieu, Philippe Leduc and William Côté. But they’ve fashioned a contemporary and evocative sound, reflected in intricate but grooving originals and covers of everyone from Radiohead to Daniel Bélanger.

The band made its first big splash when it was named Radio-Canada’s breakthrough jazz artist for 2013-2014…

and earlier this year, Bonsound, an esteemed Quebec music company with many indie darlings on its roster, released Misc’s latest, self-titled album.

In advance of the trio’s concert Friday at the NAC Back Stage, pianist Beaulieu explains that the band’s goal is make jazz for its own generation, across international boundaries.

When and why did the Jerome Beaulieu Trio become Misc?

Trio Jérôme Beaulieu became Misc a few months prior to releasing our self-titled album in March 2016 on the Montreal-based indie label Bonsound.

From our beginning as a band, we had considered taking a name that would represent our entity and our common artistic vision, attempting to steer away from the more traditional jazz approach whereby the composer gives his name to the project. The fact that Phil, Will and I joined forces not only to create this music together but also to discuss and be implicated in every aspect of the development of this band (artistic direction, financial and business aspects, etc.) remains crucial and had to be reflected in the way we present the trio. Time was of the essence when we subscribed for the Jazz en Rafale contest in 2011 so we pursued with Trio Jérôme Beaulieu and things evolved rapidly from there. However, when we joined the Bonsound team several years thereafter and discussed it with them, we realized that we had one last opportunity to change it before it would be too late — and we did!

How does the new album, Misc, represent progress for the band?

This is our most collectively produced album yet. Aside from Unlucky, which I brought to the band as an almost completely written tune, every piece on this album was composed and/or arranged collectively and for the most part, in an old manor in Burgundy where we had a week-long residency during our last tour of France.

It’s also the first jazz record that was released on the Bonsound label, which is significant here in Quebec. It makes me proud that our music is considered just as relevant to them as any other style of music, when the “jazz” label seems to intimidate a lot of people in this industry.

Let’s put another way: How has the band grown and improved over its life?

Will, Phil and I have learned a lot from each other over the years and have developed not only a solid bond as musicians, but also as friends. This is manifested in our music and our way of dealing not only with the opportunities presented, but also with every challenge that comes our way. We have acquired a lot of efficiency in the manner that we work together, whether we’re arranging a tune or figuring out what will be our next move as a band. Considering the political and social context in which we presently live, I am inclined to believe that we need more examples of collective success, not in terms of financial or social status but in terms of harmonious existence as a community. Our growth as a trio makes me incredibly proud in this respect.

I saw an interview on a Vice video in which the band spoke of making jazz accessible for your generation. What did you mean by that?

The way we feel about this might be slightly influenced by our university education and the way we were taught jazz. But essentially I guess we get weary of the genre being considered as a music of the past by many actors and consumers in the music industry when we feel it can be so incredibly rooted in the present; just look at the heavily jazz-influenced Kendrick Lamar and David Bowie releases from this year, along with all of their collaborators’ works (Kamasi Washington, Terrace Martin, Donny McCaslin, etc.) !

Yet we feel like the general perception of jazz is either that of a very complicated, elite-oriented music or the cliché of smooth, martini-drinking vocal crooning, both of which I have nothing against and enjoy playing on occasion, but very understandably don’t speak to the majority of my generation in any of these forms.

The thing is, music is and will always be a fantastic motor for social change to us, a way to pass on deeper messages and reflections regarding the way we live as human beings, and a lot of my generation wants to feel that from what they listen to (including the three of us from a spectator’s perspective) but needs to feel like the music speaks to them and acknowledges their musical references first, which is totally understandable.

Don’t get me wrong, we’re not aiming to play music for the masses at all costs and we understand that a minimal curiosity from the listener is necessary to have access to the deeper intellectual experience that comes from the art forms that are not strictly meant as entertainment. I guess we just feel like there still has to be some sort of hook to initiate that process with the listener, and to us that means not ignoring the evolution of the genres after the ’50s/’60s (rock, hip-hop, electronic music, etc.), amongst other factors.

[Note that I’m explaining all this in a very methodical way here but we don’t think about it or plan it out when we create, it just comes naturally because we listen to music in that mindset also, regardless of the genre].

Concretely for us, it means this — Playing our music without charts and music stands so that a real conversation can be established between us and with the public; Attempting to bring jazz to non-jazz venues whenever possible; Experimenting with different configurations during our shows (for example, the band in the middle, the crowd encircling us, encouraging them to move around us during the show to experience a different perspective and grasp the essence of the interaction between the musicians that is so essential to jazz); A non-purist approach to the art of the trio, incorporating effects and electronics to the band to gain a wider sound palette and the possibility to express all of what we hear freely.

One of the most frequent comments we hear following our shows is “Wow, I don’t usually like jazz but I love what you just played there!” and it makes us happy because what we’re trying to say with our artistic choices as a band is: forget the “jazz” tag, listen to what we do and you might like it even though you’re not at all into the cliché, preconceived vision society has of what jazz is.

That same interview spoke of more traditional jazz shows and artists doing tributes to Miles Davis or John Coltrane. Could Misc do that, still? Would Misc do that? (After all, EST put out an album of Thelonious Monk covers…)

I don’t think Misc will ever do that for a more “traditional” jazz artist like Monk, Coltrane or Bill Evans, even though a tribute show might very well happen with, for instance, the music of another non-jazz related artist that we love, re-arranged as jazz. We feel like it’s been done and still is ongoing so often. While this is in no way a criticism towards this music which we love and appreciate, our general interest as musicians and listeners is far more oriented towards more contemporary grooves, compositions and textures.

Tell me about the covers that the group does choose to do.

So far we’ve covered music from international artists like Radiohead, Elbow, Blonde Redhead and James Blake but also from local Quebec artists like Fred Fortin and Daniel Bélanger. Our choices are strictly based on the essence of the tune itself, stripped of its original musical and textural arrangement.If we feel like it has sufficient raw material to have it sound good in a trio context, and that we can bring something different to it without losing the original intention of the song, then we’ll go for it. Also, the possibility to have a few listeners discover through us an artist they might not have heard before plays in the balance. Most people we played for in France during the last few years didn’t seem to know who Fred and Daniel were and it made us proud to tell them to check it out because we love their music!

How open have non-jazz listeners been to your music when you’ve had a chance to play outside of the usual jazz venues and situations?

Very much! Like I said before, the most encouraging feedback we get from listeners is when they seem to have discovered that they can appreciate jazz through our music. Playing this music together is really fulfilling for us and the fact that we can bring other people along in our vibe to show them how fun it can be is very rewarding. So far we feel like this has happened most of the times when we have been given the opportunity to do so via a venue, and I hope that it can happen more and more as time goes by.

It seems to me that your group is doing very well on the Quebec music scene. How have the efforts gone to have the band heard and performing in the rest of Canada? In the US? In Europe? What goals do you have in terms of wide success and exposure in the future?

In spite of the success that we have experienced so far and for which we are very proud (Canadian jazz festivals tour, playing in numerous venues in Quebec, etc.), we have come to the realization that the Quebec and Canada music scenes are not easy when it comes to touring on a regular basis, in part because of the limited resources that come from a very small population spread out over a huge territory.

I also believe that increased education towards deeper art forms needs to be assured. However, the politics are certainly not being encouraged nor directed as such in our province (I guess you can extend this to education in general, which obviously reflects the population’s consumption of the arts at large). I don’t think this situation is exclusive to jazz and I certainly don’t think we need to express self-pity, but I nevertheless believe it is worthwhile mentioning.

From the moment this is acknowledged however, we choose to focus primarily on what we can bring to the balance to make the best out of this situation and for us, the response is two-fold:

Keep creating and presenting our music in a way that eliminates labels and preconceived ideas about jazz

Attempt to present our music internationally and build a sufficiently extended touring circuit to enable us to have sustained activities throughout the year. (The more we play, the better we sound and the more the music evolves into a natural, organic expression of our entity as a band!)

So far, our efforts in this sense have been meaningful, inspiring and very rewarding. We participated in renowned festivals in France during this past year (Jazz à Vienne, Andernos-les-Bains, Jazz 360 in the region of Bordeaux, etc.) and are currently planning to play our first shows in Switzerland and Germany and possibly China in the upcoming year.

This is all very rewarding and we look forward to presenting our music in as many places as possible on the planet. The sky’s the limit, as they say!

Misc plays Friday, Nov. 4, at the NAC Back Stage as part of the NAC Presents series. Tickets are $25, available here.

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